Morale Remains High One Week into Nemak Protest

Unifor members protest in front of the Ojibway Pkwy entrance to Nemak in west-Windsor on Sunday September 8, 2019 (Photo by AM800's Gord Bacon)

It's been a week since Nemak workers walked off the job on Labour Day and formed a blockade outside the west Windsor facility.

The move comes after the Mexican-owned company announced earlier this year that it would stop production at the plant in mid-2020. That's in stark contrast to an agreement to build engine blocks until 2022.

Dwayne Bezaire has worked at Nemak for nine years. He says morale remains high and they will continue to make a statement for workers in Windsor-Essex.

"They all have to understand what we have to do, this is for the whole community, for everybody. Morale has been pretty good and nobody wants to go back until there's a resolution," he says. "They have court this week and we hope to know more on Tuesday, until then, nobody gets in or out."

Unifor Local 200 President John D'Agnolo hopes to see a productive dialog in the courtroom.

"The lawyers are certainly going to talk about the fact the company broke the contract and the impact it's had on the membership here. Hopefully it's positive but it depends on what the judge says; we'll have to go from there," says D'Agnolo.

The union will return to The Ontario Superior Court of Justice to fight the injunction Tuesday at 2 p.m.